Cairn Gorm and Ben Macdui

As there has been little occurring lately, bar the occasional run on a treadmill at the gym, and working hard (?), I have decided to revert back upon the safe ground of a trip away in the past.  This time, I will be going back to the summer of 2006 for a trip away from the delights of the football World Cup, and the setting of the Cairngorm national park in Scotland.

The plan was an ambitious beast.  I decided we should head out into the wilderness, get up several high peaks over the course of two days, then get back to the town of Aviemore for an England game that I remember little about.  As with everything, it didn't quite go exactly to plan.

There were three of us in total; myself; Jon; and Branden.  Branden, had just decided that it would be a good idea to come along on these trips, so didn't quite know what to expect.  The poor bastard soon found out, and he learnt it very hard indeed.  When packing for an overnight trip, it is ideal to keep the weight to its bare minimum.  Jon and I had little one man tents, he had a 6kg family tent.  I decided to carry some beer as compensation, but he had to carry that thing himself.

He wasn't happy.

Happy on Cairn Gorm

Setting off from the Ski Centre below the Cairn Gorm summit, we set off, and instantly felt the extra weight on our backs.  Jon has a habit of scarpering off, and then waiting for you to catch up before disappearing once more.  It's a good method, at least he gets a rest, while those behind have to continuously plod along.  I stayed back to keep Branden on track.  It was tough work getting up to the ridge leading to Cairn Gorm, but once there, everything soon turned out to be alright.  Branden looked up to the summit of Cairn Gorm, and wanted to give it a miss, and say we did it.  I wasn't having this, so convincing him leaving our bags was safe in the middle of nowhere, we could get to the top in five minutes for our first peak of the day.

Once on the top, we could see for miles.  It almost felt as though we were on top of the world.  One thing is for certain though, although he may not have looked it, Branden was certainly hooked.  He probably just wished everything could be a little easier.

Exhausted on Ben Macdui

Ben Macdui Summit

The route over to Ben Macdui looked a simple walk, but the distance and the weight took its toll, so we were a lot slower getting there than planned.  It probably didn't help that I kept wanting to take pictures everywhere, and the Scottish weather was living true to its reputation of having four seasons in a day (I'd argue, we only got three, as there was no snow).  We weren't in any hurry though.  The knowledge of knowing we were camping wild meant that we could pick and choose the location of where we would stop.

On the summit of Ben Macdui, we enjoyed a nice tot of whisky each, as well as ate a few provisions, and shared some good banter of what we had just done.  The plan was to head further still to Carn a' Mhaim, but we decided to take a direct route down into the valley and set up a camp for the night, as we were well and truly exhausted, and the whisky gave us the flavour to drink those beers in my bag.  

The camp was nice, we had great views all around, and got satisfaction at watching Jon get nervous over his feeble tent in slightly damp conditions.  The weather held, we got drunk, and enjoyed Branden's cuisine, and pondered the next morning as we could see the peaks that would lead us back.

Not the best picture, but our camp

The return was an arduous chore.  Non of us felt like climbing anything big in the morning, and by the time we had gotten ourselves ready to leave, it wasn't exactly early.  What was more surprising was we were greeted by fell runners passing our campsite.  Looking at the route they were heading, and the map, it looked a good idea to skip the higher ground, and plan a nice route through the valleys appreciating all that was around.  Needless to say, we took our time about it all.  I recall a massive boulder field that you had to hop from one to another to get through.  More fell runners kept hopping past at intervals.  Eventually, we made it to the car, and could barely walk for the effort.  How Branden managed with that weight, I will never know.

A view along the way

We headed to the nearest pub to watch the football, and share stories.  Some of those stories were spent with the locals who were amused it took us so long to get back after they passed us running hours previously.

After the game, it was a very long drive back home.  How we didn't fall asleep behind the wheel is any ones guess.  

I just know that after my stint driving, I would plead ignorance to the other two, and sleep the whole way through the journey, and the night once back home.

This was a great trip, where we learnt a lot of our limitations, as well as how to have a good time without accomplishing all the goals.